Courtesy of The Amsterdam Tavern
Soccer Fans
Soccer fans cheer on the U.S. at Amsterdam Tavern.
Major League Soccer will add four more teams by 2020, and St. Louis is on the shortlist.
Commissioner Don Garber, who’s been naming River City as a potential MLS expansion city for years now, said the departure of the Rams football team for Los Angeles makes St. Louis even more likely to get a team while speaking in Sacramento Thursday.
“St. Louis [is] an important strategic market again for us in the Midwest that has a real opportunity today with the Rams leaving town,” Garber said in his announcement, adding that St. Louis, Sacramento, and Detroit both all “very important markets we’re talking to.”
See also: How You—Yes, You—Can Help Bring a Major League Soccer Team to St. Louis
The MLS currently has 20 teams, with four more in the works in Atlanta, Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Miami.
The Rams left St. Louis in January, and the city has quickly shifted its focus to the other kind of football with the hopes of attracting a MLS franchise. Saint Louis Football Club, the city’s USL team, is starting its second season.
Even Yogi Berra has tried to bring an MLS team to St. Louis. Two years ago, Garber said during his State of the League address that whenever he ran into Berra, the Yankees legend and St. Louis native would talk to him about soccer and St. Louis, not baseball or New York.
"It's the birthplace of soccer in America," Garber said of St. Louis. More recently, Garber said the Rams’ departure gives “a little more momentum” to St. Louis’ chances.
To make the cut, what St. Louis really needs is a stadium, specifically a soccer-specific stadium located downtown and funded by someone(s) with a spare $110 million laying around.
Space Architecture + Design launched a self-initiated stadium development study and designed a plan for a sunken stadium adjacent to Union Station, an iconic but lagging landmark in downtown.
